Toddler forms amazing bond with deaf, blind, gentle giant

A little girl and her disabled dog have become an international sensation.

Author:
David McKinley, NBC News , WXIA

Published:
2:22 AM EDT September 16, 2017

Updated:
2:22 AM EDT September 16, 2017

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- It's a story that's far from black and white about Echo, the Great Dane, and 18-month old Jenny Dwyer who is never far away.

The gentle giant and the little girl who are pretty much inseparable.

"I can't separate the two when she's eating, Echo is always peeking around the corner waiting for her to come back into the living room," Jenny's mother Marion said.

At her tender age, it's not like Jenny has mastered the language to issue verbal commands. But it doesn't matter: Echo can't hear.

And it helps for Jenny to lead her on her leash because the dog who is deaf is also, for all intents and purposes, also blind.

She was rescued from Louisiana when she was just a pup. Marion learned her owner, because of the disabilities, was preparing to have her put down - not that they'd taken much care of her anyway.

"She was 12 weeks old and was 15 pounds underweight and had a belly full of rocks," Marion said. "We took her to the vet and he said this is very common in dogs that don't get fed, that are neglected and they develop pica and she was literally trying to eat everything."

All of this was about 2 and a half years before Jenny Arrived on the scene.

"I did not expect [her] to take to Jenny the way she did," Marion said.

Although there had been signs, like when Marion was carrying Jenny and the dog was everpresent often nuzzling her belly.

"As the baby bump grew, she was always snuggling up to and when we brought Jenny home, she was near her," Marion said.

How the story went viral is a story in itself.

"Well, it was funny because the first picture I posted on Facebook and with our family, we had a shred album - they said you have to - we should like send it to the news and I thought, no it's just the two of them being cute together," she said.

But a video she took of the pair walking down the sidewalk was noticed by a major publication who published it. After nearly 2 million views, the story was picked up in Sweden - and now other outlets are pouncing like a dog on a bone.

"I just got called this morning. There is a magazine in the UK, a lifestyle magazine that's going to print the story apparently," Marion said. "I did not expect that and I think the thing is is that while white Great Danes are a thing here, they are rare in Europe where I am from. For instance, I have never seen a white Great Dane in Germany ever."

It was once famously sung, albeit about a gentle giant of another sort and a little boy, that "painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys."

But Marion said she's not worried about when Jenny goes back to school.

"No, she had really bad separation anxiety when I first adopted her and we worked on that because she never had a person in her life that she was constant with," she said.

But now she does. And as for the future, they'll cross that crack in the sidewalk when they get to it.